The businessman Gunnar Hagelberg, 52 years old, realized one more incredible travel. It was 5 months from March to August 2006 crossing Africa, in the Malaga - South Africa Expedition. Gunnar told INEMA how it was.

The travel began on March 8th in Malaga, Spain, and last till August 8th 2006 in the Cape town, South Africa. The adventure crossed 15 countries and was realized with a German truck 4x4, Maguiros Deutz, very powerful for this kind of journey. Gunnar had already been in 10 African countries but he always wanted to come back to the continent to realize a big expedition.

He says he have 25 books about the Africa's history and many maps of all countries, the interest always existed. "I found a company in German that would do the 2nd and last trip Trans Africa and I didn't loose time to make part of this adventure." That was the 3rd Gunnar's travel to the African continent. The first one was south to North, from Cape Town crossing the entire continent by the east side till Cairo, in Egypt. In the last year in October he did 6400km trans Sahara, from Tunisia till Benin. As he came back in November he did a reservation to travel in March 2006.

To the adventurer, a continent with 53 countries, 950 million inhabitants, thousands of different languages and Ethnicities, dry and hot deserts, tropical and humid forests with constant rain, mountains, plains and thousands km of beaches is an excellent place to visit, with a lot of money in luxury hotels and safaris or traveling like him, with a tent and a truck. The trip began with a group of 8 people: 4 Germanys, 1 French, 1Greak and Gunar, who went from Morocco To Benin. At the second level, till the Cape Town, just last, beyond Gunnar, two Germans and one Swiss.

The crossing took about 18.000 km. "We started in Spain, crossed by ferry boat, passed through Gilbraltar, by the way really beautiful, till Ceuta. We crossed the entire Morocco, Spanish Sahara, annexed Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Burkina / Faso, Benin, Nigeria, Cameron, Gabon, Congo / Brazzaville, which belongs to Cabinda Angola, Congo / Kinshasa, Angola, Namibia and South Africa", tells him.

The most interesting thing was to know the African people: "Counting the three trips that I did through Africa during 9 months I may have seen Africans thousand times. I have never been molested with words or aggressive glances. I have been to the most poor and remote places of the continent. In some ones people thought I were from other planet and even this I were always well received with smiles and shake hands. They are a wonderful people."

About the places that he has been is difficult to say which one he most liked: "The Sahara desert still my favorite. Despite cities as Marrakech, Timbuktu, Agadez, Tamanrasset, which are the seats of Sahara's camels caravans, the Tuareg people have an ancient culture which still exists across the desert. The Cairo in Egypt with the pyramids, Khartoum and the Sudan by the Blue Nile River, Addis Ababa in Ethiopia on the mountains, Nairobi, Kenya with its parks, Dar es Sallam, Tanzania with its beaches; Windhoek, Namibia with its beaches full of diamonds and Cape Town, with its beautiful and famous mountains in the city centre. These are some of the many special places that Africa has."

In order to travel in Africa it is necessary visas to almost all countries. Just in this last trip, Gunnar had to make 13 visas what took him 25 days of wait in the frontiers and US$2,0000 of spending. But the major difficulty that he faced was that he contracted malaria, the tropical one, very violent, in Angola. "I almost die! There was three days with a 41 c° fever almost derangement with hurt all over my body" remembers. The only structure during this three trips to Africa were the transport, sometimes by truck, plane or boat. The meals and accommodation were improvised "I slept in tends or cheap hotels by the road. Shower or any real meal was a rarity. Normally I ate Mango, banana, bread, bottle water and some canned imported from Europe. Also I used to eat the famous ' brochete of Bush meat ', an wild meat, but it could be monkey, opossum, cat, dog, etc ... The Hunger was so, that everything was tasty!"

To Gunnar the most gratifying thing was reach the end of this adventure alive. "This way I crossed 220 countries and places in the world. I Thank God that during the last 30 years I traveled and met this spectacular world in which we live!" The adventurer thanks to the technical support and "my dear wife Zelfa who was always attentive to everything even the tickets, e-mails and helped me to keep my feet on the floor!"

Translation: Marília Garske